1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to wireless mobile communications, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for releasing location information of a mobile device.
2. Background
There are several reasons why it would be desirable for a mobile device to be able to determine its geographic position. For example, The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated that U.S. cellular and PCS carriers support Emergency dialing (E911) supplemented by the location of the mobile. The FCC left it up to the wireless industry to chose the technology used when acquiring the position of the mobile device. The acquisition process can be based on one of the following methods: (1) a measurement by the network entity or basestation; (2) a derivation of the position in the mobile device (e.g. by using a GPS receiver), with the mobile device transmitting the position to the network entity when required; or (3) a combination of these two methods. An example of a combination (3) would be where the derivation in the mobile only involves the preprocessing of some positional data, with the network performing the final processing steps.
It is anticipated that method (2) will be the most common implementation, potentially augmented by a measurement by the network, i.e. method (3), for increased accuracy or in cases where the mobile-based method will not function well. Therefore, mobile devices, at least within a cellular or PCS network, will commonly have the ability to determine their position. Other applications in addition to E911 can use this xe2x80x9clocation determinationxe2x80x9d ability. For example, it has been shown that there are commercial location based services that users of the devices would be willing to use, even if they had to pay for each use. It was previously assumed, however, that the network would determine, or at least control, the location information. This approach raises a concern with regard to privacy of the mobile device user. In other words, the user of the device may want to control the release of the location information for all non-emergency uses. If this concern is not addressed, then slower growth in the number of users and usage of cellular networks may result. Because if a user does not feel confident that his location will not be released to parties beyond the user""s control, the user may turn off their phone resulting in less communication and, therefore, less revenue for the cellular providers.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a device, comprising a positioner configured to determine, at least in part, a position of the device and a request processor for processing and selectively responding to requests for information regarding the position of the device. In a preferred embodiment, the positioner comprises a GPS receiver used to calculate the position of the device. In another preferred embodiment a communications network in which the device operates finally calculates the position.
Further, in one embodiment, the device is configured to automatically respond to certain network management location information requests, which are generated by a communications network in which the device operates. In alternative embodiments, the device is configured to automatically respond to information requests that result from an emergency communication initiated by the user or that originate from certain specified agencies.
In still further embodiments, the device is programmed to respond to certain request types depending on input from the user of the device. Depending on the embodiment, the request types are related to services and events that are based on the location of the device or that are based on input from the user.
In another embodiment, the device further comprises a memory configured to store certain attributes related to the location information requests, and in another embodiment, the request processor is implemented in software.